… well almost priceless.
As you know, Mr D and I have been off the grid for the past few weeks as we travelled to Egypt. Our families did their level best to discourage us, citing all the troubles of the recent past. We ignored them and we’re so glad we did. More on this in future posts.
The way you start a holiday can colour the rest of the break. We decided to start in style and relaxation by travelling to the airport the night before. The cost of parking the car for two weeks was almost the same a staying the night in a nearby hotel and leaving the car with them. So we did. Apart from the normal Friday evening traffic the journey was pleasant and unremarkable.
On arriving in the hotel car park we could see three fully occupied coaches pulling up at reception, with another two on approach.
Buggrit!
Check-in would take for ever. Ah well. Nothing for it but to join the queue. We trudged wearily towards reception with our suitcases and flight bags, feeling resigned to a long wait. Our fellow guests were from a variety of European countries and all seemed to be in teams. A quick check on Google and it turns out they are here for a big sporting tournament for charity. My annoyance levels subsided a bit.
And then the entire crowd moved away from reception.
Yippeeee!
They had a separate check-in set up for the teams. This left Mr D and me all alone. This will go quicker than I thought. However, one look at the poor chap behind the reception desk cast some doubt on my rash assumption.
We handed over our booking form to the harassed looking chap who sighed as he apologised for our room not being ready yet. Really? It’s five hours beyond the usual check-in time. We smiled back at him and said we guessed they were flat-out with the coach-loads just arriving and not to worry, we’d wait.
I guess he was expecting a tirade of grumblings but our smiles and understanding disarmed him. Smiling with relief at our chillaxed manner, he gave us a few vouchers for free drinks to keep us entertained while we waited.
With the majority of people still trying to check in, the bar still had a few tables free. Moving like greased lightning, I pounced on a table, dumped my bag on the other chair while Mr D ordered our free drinks. In truth, our original plan was to check in, leave the bags in the room, and go straight to the bar for food a drinks. Mission accomplished more or less. The bar staff gave us the heads-up that the wait for food would increase shortly so order now if we were hungry. Oh, and would we like some more drinks as we were still not in our room? Well why not? It would be rude to turn down such a generous offer.
While full of delicious food and a couple of free beers, reception contacted us to apologise once again for the wait, to further appologise that there were no rooms at the grade we booked and to offer an upgraded room at no extra charge.
Result!
What a wonderful way to start our adventure. Needless to say, if we are leaving from this airport in the future, we would use this hotel again.
cathdean.com 